-Thoughts on the local three hockey teams on this busy Saturday night:

The Rangers were lucky to walk away with two points in a 5-4 shootout win at Toronto. Though they played a solid two periods to take a 4-3 lead to the locker room, they were way too tenative in the third and eventually paid for it when Jeff O’Neill tied the game with a few minutes left to force OT. Even in the 4-on-4 OT, they let the Leafs dictate and had problems just getting out of their own zone. Credit some strong defensive work from Sandis Ozolinsh (yes he didn’t look like a traffic cone) in his first game back and Blair Betts for getting it to a shootout where Henrik Lundqvist shined by stopping all three Leafs cold and Brendan Shanahan was clutch as usual by beating Andrew Raycroft with a quick wrister five-hole to give the Blueshirts a much needed win to even their record at 4-4-0. The pluses: Rookie Nigel Dawes made the most of his new line by notching his first career NHL goal. The 21 year-old Manitoban got rewarded finally for working hard and meshed well with Michael Nylander and Jason Ward. They also were on for the fourth goal which Ward cashed in front with his usual grunt work. The negatives: As the “real captain” Shanahan pointed out afterwards in a postgame interview with MSG’s John Giannone and Glenn Anderson, they played a nice game but lacked confidence which explained their passive finish. That has to change. Karel Rachunek had a tough game. If it’s not Marek “Big Bird” Malik who had a root canal (how convenient), it’s always someone. Lundqvist still is giving up at least one bad goal a game. He’s still having concentration issues.Though not in shootouts where he’s now 16-for-16.

-As for the Devils, they had a nightmare of a time of it up in Kanata where they somehow managed to give up eight goals to the ice cold Senators and fall in embarrassing un-Devil like fashion 8-1. This wasn’t a game we were able to find due to the crazy channels on the Time Warner Digital Cable system. It was on something called FSNY2. God forbid they actually list where it was. Usually when these two teams hook up, it’s usually a competitive game. But maybe because they were on an odd channel or maybe because they saw that Ottawa came in only 2-4-0, the Devils didn’t take them as seriously. Who knows? Whatever the case, they went from being down 2-1 after a period to giving up five goals in the second and six unanswered in this ugly defeat. Of course, Brian Gionta scored. All he has to do is plant himself in front of the net because the Mighty Mite knows no one would dare touch him in this newer softer gentler NHL. Despite missing all of training camp and preseason, the Devils’ season record holder who notched 48 goals to break Pat Verbeek’s club record already has seven this season. Not taking anything away from Gionta. He goes to the areas he needs to to score and is very gritty and extremely tough for someone 5-7 (more like 5-5). He’s a gamer. I guess he was the only one that showed in a game Martin Brodeur gave up six before being pulled for Scott Clemmensen, who actually got into his second straight game. More work than he’s seen in his entire career. Well, we’re kidding there but man. No vacation time for the former BC standout yet.

-Meanwhile in Nassau, the Islanders pulled out a comeback 4-3 OT win over the Hurricanes. In a bit of a seesaw contest in which they led by two but then suddenly found themselves down a goal after three unanswered Canes’ tallies, a Mike Sillinger tally and Tom Poti (remember him) OT winner gave them their third win and seventh and eighth points. Poti btw already has two goals and four assists after a three point night as somewhere Ranger fans are cursing at the top of their lungs wondering where this was in his time spent at MSG. Also, Isles’ captain Alexei Yashin assisted on all four goals. What’s going on here? You mean Yashin actually cares now that he has a real coach behind the bench? All this supported that 15-year company man in net Rick DiPietro, who cameback from injury to make 37 saves and pickup his first win. Much needed too since Mike Dunham (formerly Doneham) was making a push for a 20-year deal! You got to hand it to Ted Nolan. After how awful his team looked the first three games, they’ve turned it around. I guess even after a decade since running an NHL bench, he still can get his players to play for him.

-So, with those former 83 win NL Central champion Cards already taking care of the 95 win Tigers in Game 1 with Anthony Reyes going eight strong (no Mets fans this isn’t a misprint), do you think they might be cocky enough to win this whole damn thing? At the moment this is read by my Cubs buddy, there’s probably a lot of four letter words being screamed. Who could blame him? Oh. And this just in…With his home run and two RBI’s tonight, Albert Pujols has already done more than he did in seven games against the Mets (as more curses fly). The one thing the Tigers had to know and be very concerned about was that Pujols wasn’t going to have a repeat of what he didn’t do in the NLCS. Alarm sounded. How do you think Kenny Rogers will do in a must win postseason game against Jeff Weaver tomorrow night? Better not get roasted and toasted like his chicken.

-Two unforeseen college football events that would’ve had you on the floor not too long ago: Perennial powerhouse Miami Hurricanes hold on for a 20-18 victory over winless Duke. Laughingstock Rutgers Scarlet Knights improve to 7-0 after defeating Pittsburgh 20-10. Welcome to Hell!